Like We Were
by thelandslides
Summary: They would be together, but not in the way they used to be and the way they wish they still could be.


_**Author's Note-**_ So this is the first story I've published in a while, and I think my writing has improved a lot since my last fanfiction. Anyway, this is just an idea I got for a short one-shot. It's Ricky/Adrian and some Ricky/Amy, but mostly Ricky/Adrian. Don't forget to review! Happy readings! :)

* * *

Everything was falling apart; correction: _everyone_ was falling apart.

Those nine months had come and gone – although slowly – and another two had passed. High school graduation was on its way in a month for Ricky and Adrian, while Ben and Amy would be starting their senior year.

They would be _together_, but not in the way they used to be and the way they wish they still could be. They weren't _with _each other: Ben was with Adrian and Amy was with Ricky.

Sometimes it didn't feel right, but what did anymore?

It was so dysfunctional (but so would being with each other and having a baby with someone else.)

So they learned to get along this way. They spent time trying to make it work, seeing if it ever _could_ work and if they could be a family. He was trying to be different, and he had fallen under the impression that she could change him. Having been with Amy for several months now, he realized that he had to change for himself. But it would be difficult, they knew that. She didn't understand his ways; she didn't understand why he would _want_ to cheat on his 'girlfriend.'

"I don't _want_ to cheat on you, Amy," he insisted, her pacing back and forth between the couch in her living room and the window to where her backyard was behind-it was dark, the sun had set hours ago.

"Then why _did _you? Why can't you just say no?"

"This was before we were together, Amy. _Before_."

She shook her head obstinately. "No, there was another time. I know there was."

Ricky sighed and broke eye contact, looking shamefully somewhere on the wall. Amy had her answer. "_Please_," he whispered.

"What?"

"I just kissed her."

"_Who_?"

He looked at her then, only to narrow his eyebrows. Amy could see the veins slightly protruding in his forehead. "Just some girl," he scoffed. "You don't know her."

"Who did you _kiss_, Ricky? Who could you know that I don't? We go to the same school, I must know her."

"How many times do I have to say-"

"Do you wish things were different?" she whispered, her tone of voice suddenly changing.

He blinked. "What do you mean?"

She didn't say anything, but she didn't have to, because he knew what she meant. If he were to answer he'd say he didn't know, but that would be a lie, because he did wish things were different. He hadn't told Amy he loved her yet, and maybe he didn't. But now it was over, he could feel it, and _maybe_ he didn't want it to be over before it had even started.

"Ricky, I don't want you to take John tonight," Amy concluded monotonously, and Ricky knew it would come to this. This was the only way she knew of that could truly hurt him – the only thing that would probably make him stop to think about what he was doing.

"You can't...do that," he said quietly.

She shook her head slightly and whispered, "You can see him in the morning but I _don't_ want him to spend the night with you. I don't know who you have over there-"

"_No one_-"

"Goodnight," she whispered.

He opened his mouth to say '_goodnight_' but instead he stood there coldly without saying anything and he did something that he was good at doing: he walked out.

As he walked down the sidewalk, the house next door peered up over the fence, but it didn't matter, she had a baby – a baby that wasn't _his_.

He shook his head at what he was doing, making his way past the fence and up to the front porch of the house next door. He needed someone that could understand and that would simply be there. He still remembered her promise. "If you ever need me, call me. I'll be there for you, _always_."

He never understood the back and forth-ness between what he did; but he did know that when he was with Adrian – they were friends now, but it was different – he could be _himself_. There were no secrets, because that's how they had always been.

And it scared him. Every single part of it.

Shaken up, he knocked on the door a few times and waited a minute, but there was no answer so he just made sure Ben's or anyone's car wasn't parked in her driveway; and after seeing that no one was, he opened the door and went inside her kitchen after checking to see if it was unlocked.

As he walked down the hallway, he felt lifeless.

And Adrian was there in the bedroom, looking lost and confused as did he, sitting silently on the bed. She looked at him, slightly puzzled, and he fought back tears as he walked over to her, climbing halfway into the bed.

Then they just let each other cry in their arms, and when she asked: "Do you wish things could be like they were?" he heard it as the same question as "Do you wish things were different?" only it was more explicit, and he just mumbled "yes," and they didn't say anything else, because no words had to be said. They were _understood_. So they just lay there all night beside each other, barely saying anything, and just holding each other pretending that everything had returned to the way it used to be. As if maybe one day it could.


End file.
